From the moment Scotland touchdown in Dublin tomorrow the squad must draw a line in the sand and focus on the challenges ahead.
Scotland’s Guinness Six Nation’s campaign kicks-off this Saturday against an Ireland side they’ve beaten just once in the past eleven meetings and in the upcoming twelfth encounter they will be without talismanic fly half Finn Russell for reasons of a non-rugby nature.
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Coach Townsend focusing on players who want to play for Scotland
Townsend has described how he’s concentrating on players who are “desperate” and “passionate” to play for Scotland and that the Russell debacle of the last few weeks is “not the main focus just now”.
In press conferences held at Scotland’s warm-weather training camp Townsend has explained to the media the door is open for anyone good enough to be integrated into the squad but questions have to be asked about whether individuals can meet the “standards expected of a Scottish team player.”
New prep, new faces, new set-up
In Townsend’s view questions of potential recruits are to be reviewed at a later date with priorities switched to the players that are in the squad now, and helping them adjust to the changes made since the Japan World Cup.
For the first time in the run-up to a Six Nations tournament Scotland have prepared abroad, training at a warm weather camp in Valencia the last four days.
Townsend has introduced six uncapped players to his 38-man roster with three of them – lock Alex Craig and back rows Luke Crosby and Thomas Gordon – under 25.
Stuart Hogg is the new captain after it was decided it would be taken off Stuart McInally. Hogg has described how he asked Townsend for the “opportunity to take the team forward,” although breaking down the stats, if Scotland were looking for a new captain, the decision was always likely to go Hogg’s way. The fullback has the most caps in the squad by a margin of seventeen and is widely regarded as Scotland’s best player.
Changes to the Ireland and Welsh camps
Seismic changes have also taken place in the Irish and Welsh camps.
Ireland begin the campaign under new coach Andy Farrell – father of England superstar Owen – while Wales enter a Six Nations championship for the first time in twelve tournaments without Warren Gatland.
Gatland, a monumental figure of Welsh Rugby, led Wales to four Six Nations titles, three grand slams and reached the semi-finals of the World Cup in 2011 and 2019.
The man attempting to fill his giant-sized boots is fellow New Zealander Wayne Pivac whose first competitive game is against Italy at the Principality Stadium on Saturday.
New horizons, same old ambitions
Almost five hundred words of copy, all of it looking ahead at what’s coming, not back at what’s happened.
If Scotland do want to look to the past, focus on the grand slam victory of 1984 when the Scots went to the imperious fortress of Paris and defeated a French side described at the time as ‘unbeatable’.
Or look back to Ian McGeechan’s grand slam winners of the final Five Nations tournament in 1990 when Scotland, aided by eighty-thousand cries of resistance against the ‘auld enemy’, halted what was considered an unstoppable England side at Murrayfield.
Possibilities are endless.
The Guinness Six Nations begins on Saturday the 1st of February.
Scotland fixtures:
01 Feb IRELAND v SCOTLAND KO 16:45
08 Feb SCOTLAND v ENGLAND KO 16:45
22 Feb ITALY v SCOTLAND KO 14:15
08 Mar SCOTLAND v FRANCE KO 15:00
14 Mar WALES v SCOTLAND KO 14:15
Harry Jamshid Reporter Sports Pages 